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Ramon Hurtado: Recent Work and Demos

Hi everyone,

I've been missing for awhile, but I'm back and I'll be updating regularly. A lot has happened since my last posts around here, so I figure I'd start a brand new thread. You can still see my old one here. I've also relaunched my blog.

Hey Ramon it's great to see your lovely drawings again. i especially like the feet. Yours was the second sketchbook that I was reading, (John Hardesty aka Mindcandy man was first) that totally convinced and inspired me to start drawing myself.

Hope you and Lamb managed to get the money together to visit Robert Liberace and hope you keep posting here.

These are some figure paintings from Rob's class. He's been tremendously helpful in developing my work further. He's been pushing me to instill more energy in my studies and keep seeking the character of the model. No lazy observation here! It's really challenging mentally, but it's the only way to reach the same level of mastery as Rob or Fortuny.

The landscape is my last study of sunlight back home in Mexico. I can't wait to go back and paint in the brilliant desert sun!

Agreed that Robs lessons are paying off. I d love to hear some insights about what he s teaching you. Like what kind of mindset does he teach you to approach the drawing with? What to pay attention to the most? Stuff like this.

Thanks for the comments guys, it's an exciting time for me. I was recently awarded the Stacey scholarship, Rob's Spring term class just started and I'm planning some new paintings for my return to LA. For those interested in the Stacey, I posted my entries on my blog.

Kevin: Thanks! Rob is my favorite living painter and I'm sure you already know what a great guy he is. A few weeks ago he was walking out the door with one of his originals (after a faculty show at the League) and we ran after him to catch a glimpse. He very graciously showed his painting to us and explained some of the reasoning behind it. It was amazing.

Cquinn: Rob's instruction is very personalized, but I can offer you my experience and some general concepts that he teaches. With me, Rob has been stressing really looking carefully at the model and finding the maximum amount of variation in the forms. He does not want to see any gross generalizations, or areas flattening out. He encourages us to capture the specific character of the model, and to keep the painting or drawing dynamic throughout the process. He's helped me to slow down and try to add more and more volume to my work, while still being adventurous in the paint handling. We both share a strong interest in the work of Fortuny and the Hispano-Roman school, so I think he's been keeping that in mind when he critiques my work.

In practice, he stresses a very energetic gesture and getting your placement right with an "animated stickfigure". He then maps out the shadow shapes in a simplified way using just umber. However, the shapes are simple but not generic, it's all about character. Depending on the time available to him, he's work with the shadow edges more or less, sometimes getting a lot of information just in the umber stage.

After that he places a single skin middle tone throughout the lights, then adds higher lights, then some halftones. He is constantly keeping the painting dynamic and adding more information. The paint is pretty thin. Then he begins to work with the paint that's already there, pushing and pulling, always keeping the gesture and structure in mind.

I recommend his DVDs, he explains it much better than I do!

Esraa: Thanks for the kind words Esra, you bet I accept your friendship!

Here are some more paintings from the model. The first two are 4 hours. The last one is 4 hours in with 8 more to go.

Wow Ramon well done on winning your Stacey Scholarship. That's so great for you and well deserved in my opinion. Now you have the funds to continue your studies with Rob, it is going to be so exciting to watch you progress. I especially liked your townscape painting for your entries, although they all look damn fine.

Hey thanks for the insights. Great that his instruction is highly personalized as thats why your there paying him . What you say makes a lot of sense though. Clearly he s going to stress a dynamic gesture a ton as I would argue thats his specialty. Pushing to find the small variations in forms also makes a lot of sense its something I ll be pushing to do with my own drawings more. I also agree that getting a lot of info down in the first stages is pretty key. Its when the drawing/painting is most malleable and easily the most important as the rest of the details just sort of hang on the structure you ve laid down.

What DVD would you say explains this stuff the best? They arent cheap so I don t really wanna get them all thats for sure but I could be interested in getting one of them as his teachings seem unique and his painting/drawing is powerful.